A thousand poker players gathered around 100 tables on Wednesday morning for Event #29 of the Turbo Championship of Online Poker, a $109 buy-in no-limit hold'em Shootout. With five-minute levels and starting stacks of 5,000 (reset each round), the one among them who would win three ten-handed sit-n-gos -- each likely to take between an hour and 90 minutes -- would claim a nifty return of $18,250 on that $109 investment.

All told the prize pool added up to an even $100,000 for this one (beating the $75K guarantee). Winning the first-round match would get you into the money, assuring at least a $385 payday. Winning two rounds and a seat at the final table meant a minimum cash of $1,400 (10th-place money). But winning one more match would get you the first-prize money as well as one of those coveted TCOOP gold-plated card cappers.

Marquez' match was one of the last of the first round to complete, taking about an hour and 20 minutes. Not long after icf043 finally took the last of Twinface82's chips on their table to advance, and the second round was immediately underway.

Round 2 (100 to 10)

The first of the ten second-round matches finished over on Table 5 where AleksZy needed just over an hour to win the table, using A♦K♥ to wipe out louve205's K♠7♥ on the final hand. Moments later it was joszunabot18 taking down Table 4, beating Marcius155 heads-up to win his seat at the final table.

Soon the other tables wrapped up as well. On Table 8, Aaron "JeanGrae" McCready and mumu12345 were close in chips when they got it all in with McCready holding 8♦8♠ and mumu12345 pocket aces. An eight flopped, and JeanGrae's hand held to win him the table.

On Table 2 it was P121YAN advancing after outlasting J_Kenish heads-up. Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko managed a sixth-place finish there. twirlpro then took the last of 19Boris73's chips to win Table 7, Mr Negreanu (not that one) knocked out Boartskjepke to take Table 9, and -shameLi- won Table 10 by eliminating Skowronekpro who had early on sent Ana Marquez to the rail in eighth.

Next it was czlol winning Table 1 where Hasn82 finished second and Marcin "Goral" Horecki fifth. wasjaxjey took Table 3, beating out thawright at the end. And finally, about one hour and 20 minutes after the match had begun, in was KOSEC510 advancing at Table 6 after whittling away at ricky17's short stack, then winning the last of the chips with A♦T♦ over ricky17's pocket deuces when a ten hit the board.

The last of the ten-handed sit-n-gos was ready to go!

Round 3 (10 to 1)

All reverted back to 5,000 chips as the last of the three shootout matches began, the blinds once again starting at 25/50.

They made it all of the way to Level 9 (35/150/300) before the first elimination at the final table, nearly 50 minutes into the match. By then twirlpro had pushed in front with more than 10,000 chips while -shameLi- and P121YAN were sitting on the short stacks with a little over 2,000 each.

It was Mr Negreanu, however, pushing all in from the cutoff for 4,400 and getting a reraise from czlol in the small blind to isolate. Mr Negreanu held A♣8♥, but czlol had woken up with A♠K♣, and after the J♦Q♦J♥7♥T♣ board they were down to nine.

A couple of hands after that P121YAN would lose most of his chips to fellow short-stack -shameLi- after running A♣J♣ into -shameLi-'s A♦K♣. Down to just 611 chips, P121YAN would get them all in with K♣9♣ versus AleksZy's T♣T♦, and when the community cards came 8♥4♣3♣9♥T♠, P121YAN became the next to go in ninth.

The match hit the one-hour mark, then came a tourney-changing hand involving three players, -shameLi-, joszunabot18, and twirlpro.

With blinds up to 250/500, -shameLi- raised all in from under the gun for 4,675, joszunabot18 called with the 3,445 he had left, then twirlpro reraised over the top from the small blind to force a fold from JeanGrae. The trio's hands were revealed:

twirlpro: T♥T♠-shameLi-: A♥J♥joszunabot18: 9♦9♥

The flop came A♦5♥4♠ to put -shameLi- in front, but the T♣ turn gave twirlpro a set, and after the K♣ river the field had been swiftly trimmed by two, with joszunabot18 taking eighth and -shameLi- finishing seventh.

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Three more eliminations rapidly followed, coming on three consecutive hands.

Just three hands after twirlpro's double-knockout the blinds were 300/600 when KOSEC519 raised all in for 2,414 from UTG and saw Aaron "JeanGrae" McCready reraise all in from a couple of seats over. It folded back around and KOSEC510 showed A♥T♣ to JeanGrae's 9♦9♥. Five cards later -- 7♥Q♦J♦Q♣3♥ -- they were down to five.

On the very next hand it folded around to AleksZy in the small blind who pushed his short stack of 1,962 in the middle, getting a call from chip leader twirlpro who by then had pushed over 21,000. AleksZy had Q♥7♥ and twirlpro K♠5♠. The board brought no pairs for either player, coming 2♦6♠A♣3♠9♦ to send AleksZy out in fifth.

And right after that it was wasjaxjev opening with a 4x raise to 2,400 from UTG, leaving himself just three chips behind. It folded to czlol in the big blind who reraised and wasjaxjev put in those last chips, showing K♠J♠ to czlol's A♠3♥. The board came 8♠K♦3♦A♦8♣, giving czlol the better two pair and knocking wasjaxjev out in fourth.

The dust from that rush of activity settled to show twirlpro in front wiht 23,511, JeanGrae next with 14,004, and czlol third with 12,485. Those three would battle for about 15 more hands, then it would take just two hands more to settle TCOOP #29.

First czlol minimum-raised to 1,600 from the button, then twirlpro raised to 4,260 from the small blind. Aaron "JeanGrae" McCready had fallen to just 2,219 to start the hand, and he pushed his stack in from the big blind then saw czlol fold. McCready had A♠Q♥, but twirlpro had him pipped with A♣K♠, and after the cards came T♦6♠J♦9♠7♥ JeanGrae was out in third.

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The stacks were 29,730 for twirlpro and 20,270 for czlol for their single heads-up hand.

twirlpro opened for 1,600 from the button, czlol made it 4,000, twirlpro shoved, and czlol called. twirlpro held A♣5♣ and czlol 9♥9♠, and when the flop came A♠3♣6♠ czlol was in need of help to survive. But the turn was the 3♥ and river the Q♣, giving the chips, the third-round match, the gold-plated TCOOP card capper, and the first-place prize money to twirlpro.

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Congratulations to twirlpro for winning three ten-handed tables to turn $109 into a cool $18,250!